Support plans cast shadow over future for crop-based AD
© Tim Scrivener Plans to limit Feed-in Tariffs (Fits) support for new biogas plants generating electricity from crop-based feedstocks threaten to restrict future energy crop opportunities for growers.
The proposals are set out in a recent consultation alongside other plans to cut AD support and introduce sustainability criteria in line with the Renewables Obligation and Renewable Heat Incentive.
The aim is to push developers of new biogas plants away from reliance on crop-based feedstocks such as maize silage towards greater use of processing wastes and residues.
See also: Support reforms mean more renewable heat uncertainty
The Department of Energy and Climate Change – now part of the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy – believes “the primary purpose of agricultural land is for growing food” and that waste feedstocks offer greater emissions savings than crops.
Options for limiting support
Two options for limiting Fits support are proposed and if implemented, will come into effect for new installations from January 2017:
1. To only pay Fits generation and export tariff payments on electricity generated from biogas derived from wastes and residues, or
2. Limit Fits payments for electricity generated from feedstocks other than wastes and residues (for example, energy crops) to 50% of the total biogas yield. This is the government’s favoured option.
Both options will require AD operators to report electricity generation and feedstock use to Ofgem quarterly to calculate what proportion of total electricity generation is eligible for Fits payments under the new rules.
Operators will still be able to use crop-based feedstocks, but depending on which option is implemented, there will be a limit on the support available.
For example, under option one, an AD plant using 80% waste and 20% crops would receive Fits payments on 80% of total electricity generated quarterly.
Under option two, all electricity generated from the waste proportion would be eligible, while payments would be limited to 50% of electricity generated from crops.
Criticism of the plans
NNFCC lead consultant Lucy Hopwood warns the plans to limit feedstock to low-yielding or highly competitive wastes and residues, together with removal of support for larger plants and tariff cuts for smaller plants could stop new development at any scale, presenting a “bleak” future for biogas power.
The NFU also has serious reservations about the proposed maximum threshold for crop feedstocks and the practicality of quarterly feedstock sustainability reporting, which includes a minimum greenhouse gas emissions target and specified land criteria on non-waste feedstocks.
According to a DBEIS spokesperson, the government is still analysing consultation responses (consultation closed on 14 July), and no timescale for any outcome announcement can be given until this initial analysis is complete.
Read the full the consultation document (PDF)
How much land is used?
Defra figures, based on the annual 2015 June census, show 122,000ha of agricultural land was used for bioenergy in the UK, equivalent to 2% of all arable land.
More than two-thirds (83,000ha) was used for growing crops, principally wheat and oilseed rape, for biofuels while maize for AD makes up most of the remainder, alongside a small area of miscanthus and short-rotation coppice.
Maize remains the most important AD feedstock, with some 19% of the total maize area of 33,698ha destined for biogas generation, equivalent to 0.7% of the total arable area.